System and method for implementing an assessment tool for converting a regulation into a series of questions

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method and system that implements an assessment tool that assesses regulations. The system comprises: a server interface; a data store; and an assessment engine comprising a computer processor, coupled to the server interface and the data store, programmed to: identify a regulation; divide the regulation into a plurality of rules; convert each rule into a question, test and one or more conditions; present, via a user interface, a first question to a user; receive, via the user interface, a response to the first question; store, in the data store, the response; present, via the user interface, a subsequent question responsive to the response; store, in the data store, the subsequent question and corresponding response; and dynamically generate an audit trail of each question and answer combination.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation application of U.S. Utility patentapplication Ser. No. 15/288,285, filed on Oct. 7, 2016, the completedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to an assessment tool, and moreparticularly to a system and method that assesses regulations through auser interface that stores outputs and inputs in a dynamic manner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Regulations generally refer to government requirements, restrictions andguidelines that are imposed on an industry. Regulations are complex andaffect various aspects of an organization or business. Because of thecomplexity, users within an organization may interpret and applyregulations and policies in an inconsistent manner. Oftentimes, anorganization will be expected to comply with different regulations andpolicies. As a result, an organization faces many challenges incomplying with a wide range of regulations in a consistent manner.

These and other drawbacks currently exist.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one embodiment, the invention relates to a computerimplemented system that assesses regulations. The assessment systemcomprises: a server interface configured to receive inputs from a userinterface; a data store that stores questions, answer and an orderassociated with the questions and answer; and an assessment enginecomprising a computer processor, coupled to the server interface and thedata store, programmed to: identify a regulation; divide the regulationinto a plurality of rules; convert each rule into a question, test andone or more conditions; present, via the user interface, a firstquestion to a user; receive, via the user interface, a response to thefirst question; store, in the data store, the response; present, via theuser interface, a subsequent question responsive to the response; store,in the data store, the subsequent question and corresponding response;and dynamically generate an audit trail of each question and answercombination.

The system may include a specially programmed computer system comprisingone or more computer processors, mobile devices, electronic storagedevices, and networks.

The invention also relates to computer implemented method that assessesregulations. The method comprises the steps of: identifying aregulation; dividing the regulation into a plurality of rules;converting each rule into a question, test and one or more conditions;presenting, via a user interface, a first question to a user; receiving,via the user interface, a response to the first question; storing, in adata store, the response; presenting, via the user interface, asubsequent question responsive to the response; storing, in the datastore, the subsequent question and corresponding response; anddynamically generating an audit trail of each question and answercombination.

The computer implemented system, method and medium described hereinprovide unique advantages to organizations, such as financialinstitutions and other entities. Regulations that impact how the firmmanages its credit risk are increasingly complex. When the regulationsare applied they need to be applied consistently, with a sufficientaudit trail or logic path to evidence the correct application. They alsoneed to be presented in a clear and concise manner and further adaptableto changes in the regulation. An embodiment of the present invention isdirected to an assessment system that assesses policies and associatedcomplexities through a user interface that stores the outputs as well asthe inputs in a dynamic manner as the user interacts with the system.The policies may be specific to a financial institution, e.g., creditrisk policy, as well as other industries, sectors and applications.

The various embodiments of the present invention achieve keyimprovements over current systems. For example, the innovativeassessment tool is able to determine a minimum number of questions to beanswered through a user interface, thereby optimizing the resourcesrequired to support an assessment process. The distribution ofcomputation from server logic to the user interface component allows formore efficient processing by utilizing the user's desktop computationresources. This allows for greater scalability. Also, an embodiment ofthe present invention allows for a logic path to be changed quicklywhich gives the ability to quickly adapt to changing requirements. Forexample, if the logic and the presentation required to make that logicusable to the end user had to be changed then the release would takesignificantly longer. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, because only the logic path needs to be changed, the effortrequired to implement may be significantly reduced. These and otheradvantages will be described more fully in the following detaileddescription.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to facilitate a fuller understanding of the present invention,reference is now made to the attached drawings. The drawings should notbe construed as limiting the present invention, but are intended only toillustrate different aspects and embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system that implements anassessment tool, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flowchart of a method for implementing anassessment tool, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart of a method for implementing anassessment tool, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary screen shot that illustrates an assessment engineinterface, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary audit trail, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

The following description is intended to convey an understanding of thepresent invention by providing specific embodiments and details. It isunderstood, however, that the present invention is not limited to thesespecific embodiments and details, which are exemplary only. It isfurther understood that one possessing ordinary skill in the art, inlight of known systems and methods, would appreciate the use of theinvention for its intended purposes and benefits in any number ofalternative embodiments, depending upon specific design and other needs.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to an assessment toolthat takes complexities in regulations or policies and presents thecomplex information in a format that may be interpreted and usable to awide range of users with varying abilities to properly understand andinterpret policies. The assessment tool enables an organization toconsistently apply complex policies and provide visibility as to howusers within an organization are making decisions. The assessment toolprovides a series of questions via a user interface in a manner thatminimizes misinterpretation and reduces incorrect implementation ofpolicies. The user interface dynamically records the questions andcorresponding answers throughout the interactive process and providesinsights and understanding as to how each user makes a decision. Inother words, the assessment tool illustrates a logic path for each userin rendering a decision and coming to a conclusion. The data may also beused to provide constructive feedback to regulators as well as to aninternal group within the organization. The feedback may include, forexample, why some rules did not apply or did not work within a certaincontext. The data may be processed and analyzed to identify and developtrends, results, performance indicators, action items and otheranalysis. For example, the data may be used for trend analysis and alsofor bifurcating a portfolio in various components depending in the logicto achieve an outcome. Also, the assessment tool may provide analysis ontrend events that may be driven by different regulatory and otherrequirements. Accordingly, the assessment tool is dynamic and providesconsistency in multiple uses across an organization.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to converting apolicy or regulation into a series of questions that represent adecision tree that may be developed in real time and further changed,modified and/or updated in real time. The decision tree may representvarious paths to an output or determination. A particular path for auser may be dynamically captured, stored and analyzed.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to an assessmentprocess that breaks a regulation into a series of rules. These rules maycontain a question in plain English, a test, and one or more conditionsthat are required to be true in order for the rule to be executed, andone or more conditions that are true depending on the result entered bythe user. According to an embodiment of the present invention, theserules may be executed from a user interface that feeds the user responseto rules and then takes the response, renders this dynamically topresent the next question. For example, the rules may directly impactwhat is presented to the user, via the user interface.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the assessmentprocess breaks the regulation into a decision tree that is expressed inEnglish. The intermediate questions and/or answers may be stored in amemory component (e.g., data store) so that an audit trail may bepreserved. The nature of a rules engine allows for easier maintenance.Also, a decision tree allows for review and reporting to ensure that theregulations are applied and interpreted consistently. An embodiment ofthe present invention may be applied to a broad policy that may then befocused based on input and responses from users within an organization.

An embodiment of the present invention automatically codes the rules ina rules format which may then be used to dynamically interact with auser, via the user interface.

The assessment tool may be applied to policies, regulations as well asother types requirements, restrictions, guidelines, etc. The assessmenttool may be applied to various sectors, including financial, government,consumer products, environmental, and others.

The features of the various embodiments of the present invention providebenefits and improvements over current systems. For example, byorganizing as a decision tree, the adoption of rules with the format ofpre-conditions, question, test, and post-conditions allows for thebusiness subject matter experts to define the requirements which putsthe definition directly in the hands of the subject matter expert (SME).

By defining the user interface to take the question text from the rule,the rules may be dynamically presented to a user in a usable format. Anembodiment of the present invention couples the dynamic user interfaceto a rules engine using direct SME input. Also, the results may be savedas a secondary function which preserves the audit trail for lateranalysis. Selection of the rules engine also allows for faster changesbecause the relationships between the rules may be determined atrun-time and does not need to be explicitly coded.

The user interface of an embodiment of the present invention may bedesigned so that it is driven by the rules engine itself and assumes astructure to the rules executed. That same structure may be exposed tothe business SMEs that may be used to breakdown the regulation into adecision tree.

With increasing complexity of regulation, an embodiment of the presentinvention may be implemented to give users the ability to navigate thepolicy in a straight-forward way. Past experience shows that regulationsare more likely to grow more numerous and more complex. The variousfeatures of an embodiment of the present invention provide a way tomanage this growing complexity.

In addition, an embodiment of the present invention provides resultsthat are consistent by enforcing a consistent set of controls on eachassessment. The ability to record each question in order provides datafor later reporting to ensure proper adherence to any constraints aroundthe assessment.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system that implements anassessment tool, according to an exemplary embodiment. According to anembodiment of the present invention, there are two main components tothe Assessment application, namely, a user interface, e.g., View Client110, and an Assessment Engine 120. View Client 110 may accept user inputand in response, render responses from Assessment Engine 120. AssessmentEngine 120 may determine the next question based on the prior responsesgiven by the user. Each question and a corresponding answer may bestored along with an order in which the questions were asked andanswered for later data analysis. In addition, intermediate tests may beapplied to the user input and those results may be stored as well. Theuser interface of an embodiment of the present invention may interpretresponses from Assessment Engine 120 and then render a next question asinstructed without the need for static instructions to render a userinterface in a web browser or other user interface technology. Once theassessment has concluded, the culmination of the user input and testsmay be provided to the user for confirmation and/or approval (e.g.,accept or reject).

View Client 110 may accept user input and render the responses fromAssessment Engine 120. Assessment Engine 120 may determine the path ofquestions and the assessment results based on the user inputs. TheAssessment Engine may include a customized data store 126.

The following descriptions provide different configurations and featuresaccording to exemplary embodiments. While certain nomenclature and typesof applications/hardware are described, other names andapplication/hardware usage is possible and the nomenclature provided isdone so by way of non-limiting examples only. Further, while particularembodiments are described, it should be appreciated that the featuresand functions of each embodiment may be combined in any combination asis within the capability of one of ordinary skill in the art. Thefigures provide additional exemplary details regarding the presentinvention. It should also be appreciated that these exemplaryembodiments are provided as non-limiting examples only.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , network 102 may be communicatively coupledwith one or more data devices including, for example, computing devicesassociated with users that host View Client 110. Such devices mayinclude mobile devices, including mobile phones, smart devices, a laptopcomputer, a personal digital assistant, a smartphone, a smartwatch,smart glasses, other wearables or other computing devices capable ofsending or receiving network signals. Network 102 may communicate withvarious vendors 120, merchants 122 as well as other providers,represented by 124. In addition, Network 102 communicates withAssessment Engine 120, which may be hosted by various entities,represented by 130. Entity 130 may include an Assessment Engine 120 thatdetermines the path of questions and the assessment results based onuser inputs. Data Store 126 may store the questions, answers and acorresponding order as well as intermediate results. The AssessmentEngine features described herein may be provided by Entity 130 and/or athird party provider, which may operate with Entity 130.

The system of FIG. 1 may be implemented in a variety of ways.Architecture within system may be implemented as hardware components(e.g., module) within one or more network elements. It should also beappreciated that architecture within system may be implemented incomputer executable software (e.g., on a tangible, non-transitorycomputer-readable medium) located within one or more network elements.Module functionality of architecture within system may be located on asingle device or distributed across a plurality of devices including oneor more centralized servers and one or more mobile units or end userdevices. The architecture depicted in system is meant to be exemplaryand non-limiting. For example, while connections and relationshipsbetween the elements of system is depicted, it should be appreciatedthat other connections and relationships are possible. The systemdescribed below may be used to implement the various methods herein, byway of example. Various elements of the system may be referenced inexplaining the exemplary methods described herein.

While FIG. 1 illustrates individual devices or components, it should beappreciated that there may be several of such devices to carry out thevarious exemplary embodiments.

The network 102 may be a wireless network, a wired network or anycombination of wireless network and wired network. For example, thenetwork 102 may include one or more of an Internet network, a satellitenetwork, a wide area network (“WAN”), a local area network (“LAN”), anad hoc network, a Global System for Mobile Communication (“GSM”), aPersonal Communication Service (“PCS”), a Personal Area Network (“PAN”),D-AMPS, Wi-Fi, Fixed Wireless Data, IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.15.1,802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, or any other wired or wireless network fortransmitting or receiving a data signal. Also, the network 102 maysupport an Internet network, a wireless communication network, acellular network, Bluetooth, or the like, or any combination thereof.The network 102 may further include one, or any number of the exemplarytypes of networks mentioned above operating as a stand-alone network orin cooperation with each other. The network 102 may utilize one or moreprotocols of one or more network elements to which it is communicativelycoupled. The network 102 may translate to or from other protocols to oneor more protocols of network devices. Although the network 102 isdepicted as one network for simplicity, it should be appreciated thataccording to one or more embodiments, the network 102 may comprise aplurality of interconnected networks, such as, for example, a serviceprovider network, the Internet, a cellular network, corporate networks,or even home networks, or any of the types of networks mentioned above.

Data may be transmitted and received via network 102 utilizing astandard networking protocol or a standard telecommunications protocol.For example, data may be transmitted using Session Initiation Protocol(“SIP”), Wireless Application Protocol (“WAP”), Multimedia MessagingService (“MIMS”), Enhanced Messaging Service (“EMS”), Short MessageService (“SMS”), Global System for Mobile Communications (“GSM”) basedsystems, Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”) based systems,Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocols (“TCP/IP”), hypertexttransfer protocol (“HTTP”), hypertext transfer protocol secure(“HTTPS”), real time streaming protocol (“RTSP”), or other protocols andsystems suitable for transmitting and receiving data. Data may betransmitted and received wirelessly or in some cases may utilize cablednetwork or telecom connections such as an Ethernet RJ45/Category 5Ethernet connection, a fiber connection, a cable connection or otherwired network connection.

Entity 130 may include or be communicatively coupled to Data Store 126.For example, Data Store 126 may store the questions, answers and acorresponding order, etc. Data Store 126 may include any suitable datastructure to maintain the information and allow access and retrieval ofthe information. For example, Data Store 126 may keep the data in anorganized fashion and may be an Oracle database, a Microsoft SQL Serverdatabase, a DB2 database, a MySQL database, a Sybase database, an objectoriented database, a hierarchical database, a flat database, and/oranother type of database as may be known in the art to store andorganize data as described herein.

Data Store 126 may be any suitable storage device or devices. Thestorage may be local, remote, or a combination thereof with respect toData Store 126. Data Store 126 may utilize a redundant array of disks(RAID), striped disks, hot spare disks, tape, disk, or other computeraccessible storage. In one or more embodiments, the storage may be astorage area network (SAN), an internet small computer systems interface(iSCSI) SAN, a Fiber Channel SAN, a common Internet File System (CIFS),network attached storage (NAS), or a network file system (NFS). DataStore 126 may have back-up capability built-in. Communications with DataStore 126 may be over a network, such as network 102, or communicationsmay involve a direct connection between Data Store 126 and Entity 130,as depicted in FIG. 1 . Data Store 126 may also represent cloud or othernetwork based storage.

Various exemplary methods are provided by way of example herein. Thesemethods are exemplary as there are a variety of ways to carry outmethods according to the present disclosure. The methods depicted anddescribed can be executed or otherwise performed by one or a combinationof various systems and modules. Each block shown in the methodsrepresents one or more processes, decisions, methods or subroutinescarried out in the exemplary method, and these processes, decisions,methods or subroutines are not necessarily carried out in the specificorder outlined in the methods, nor is each of them required.

Various exemplary methods are provided by way of example herein. Thesemethods are exemplary as there are a variety of ways to carry outmethods according to the present disclosure. The methods depicted anddescribed can be executed or otherwise performed by one or a combinationof various systems and modules. Each block shown in the methodsrepresents one or more processes, decisions, methods or subroutinescarried out in the exemplary method, and these processes, decisions,methods or subroutines are not necessarily carried out in the specificorder outlined in the methods, nor is each of them required.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flowchart of a method for implementing anassessment tool, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Atstep 210, a regulation or policy may be received or identified. At step212, the regulation or policy may be divided into a series of rules. Atstep 214, the rules may be converted into a set of questions. At step216, the user may be presented with the set of question, via a userinterface. At step 218, user interaction data and results may be stored.At step 220, an audit trail may be automatically generated. The orderillustrated in FIG. 2 is merely exemplary. While the process of FIG. 2illustrates certain steps performed in a particular order, it should beunderstood that the embodiments of the present invention may bepracticed by adding one or more steps to the processes, omitting stepswithin the processes and/or altering the order in which one or moresteps are performed. These steps will be described in greater detailbelow.

At step 210, a regulation may be received or identified. The regulationmay be a government regulation or policy. For example, a bankingregulation may require banks to comply with regulations, restrictionsand guidelines. Other policies that relate to various industries may beidentified.

At step 212, the regulation may be divided into a series of rules. Theseries of rules may be based on categorization of the regulation orpolicy. For example a regulation may be divided into a variouscategories which may be applied consistently and transparently.

At step 214, the rules may be converted into a set of questions. Eachrule may have a corresponding question or set of questions, test and oneor more conditions. For example, the regulation may be converted into adecision tree with a series of questions expressed in a user friendlyeasily-understandable format.

At step 216, the user may be presented with the set of question, via auser interface. The assessment tool may provide the set of questions toa user and receive responses where the responses may be used to generatea next question. The process may repeat for each question and answersequence.

At step 218, the results may be stored in a data store or other memorycomponent. For example, user answers and interaction data may be stored.Also, intermediate questions and/or answers may be stored in a memorycomponent (e.g., data store) so that an audit trail may be preserved.

At step 220, an audit trail may be automatically generated. For example,the audit trail may include a corresponding logic path for each user inrendering a decision and coming to a conclusion. The data may also beused to provide constructive feedback to regulators as well as to anorganization.

An embodiment of the present invention is directed to converting apolicy or regulation into a series of questions that represent adecision tree that may be developed in real time and further changed,modified and/or updated in real time. The decision tree may representvarious paths to an output or determination. A particular path for auser may be dynamically captured, stored and analyzed.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart of a method for implementing anassessment tool, according to an embodiment of the present invention.View Client 110 sends a request to Assessment Engine 120 to start anassessment. Assessment Engine 120 may determine a starting question forthe type of assessment requested and send a response back to View Client110 with the question details. View Client 110 may render the responseas text and a set of user input controls by direct instruction to theuser interface technology via its native runtime Application ProgrammingInterface (API). The assessment process may be iterative with thefollowing steps repeated until the assessment results are derived.

An assessment process starts at step 310. At step 312, a request is sentto an Assessment Engine to retrieve a next question with response inputsfrom a current question. The user enters in the data inputs to thequestion and requests the next question. At step 314, user data inputsand a path definition may be injected into a path logic. Path definitionmay be retrieved from step 316. For example, path definition may beretrieved or accessed from a configuration file or other source. Theconfiguration file may be stored at a database or other storagemechanism. At step 318, the process may determine if the assessment hasconcluded. If yes, the assessment ends and results are generated at step328. If no, interim results may be stored at step 320. At step 322, theprocess may determine whether there are tests to run. If yes, tests maybe applied to the data and the results may be stored at step 324. If no,the process may determine whether the end of the path has been reached,at step 326. If the end has been reached, the assessment process endsand results are generated at step 328. If no, a next question may beretrieved at step 330. At step 332, responses may be generated and sentback to View Client. At step 334, responses may be rendered fromAssessment Engine. At step 336, user may then enter responses to acurrent question. The user may enter information or elect to movebackward in the assessment and invalidate a question that has alreadybeen answered. The process may then repeat from step 310. The orderillustrated in FIG. 3 is merely exemplary. While the process of FIG. 3illustrates certain steps performed in a particular order, it should beunderstood that the embodiments of the present invention may bepracticed by adding one or more steps to the processes, omitting stepswithin the processes and/or altering the order in which one or moresteps are performed.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary screen shot that illustrates an assessment tool,according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is anexemplary user interface where a set of questions may be presented tothe user. The exemplary user interface has a plurality of sections. Inthe example shown in FIG. 4 , there are three sections, sample question1 at 410, sample question 2 at 412 and sample question 3 at 414.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary audit trail, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The audit trail illustrated in FIG. 5 corresponds theinteraction illustrated in FIG. 4 . In this example, the audit trial mayinclude Item ID, at 510; Assessment ID, at 512; Item Sequence at 514;Question at 516 and Response at 518. Other fields and variations may beimplemented.

The foregoing examples show the various embodiments of the invention inone physical configuration; however, it is to be appreciated that thevarious components may be located at distant portions of a distributednetwork, such as a local area network, a wide area network, atelecommunications network, an intranet and/or the Internet. Thus, itshould be appreciated that the components of the various embodiments maybe combined into one or more devices, collocated on a particular node ofa distributed network, or distributed at various locations in a network,for example. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, thecomponents of the various embodiments may be arranged at any location orlocations within a distributed network without affecting the operationof the respective system.

As described above, FIG. 1 includes a number of communication devicesand components, each of which may include at least one programmedprocessor and at least one memory or storage device. The memory maystore a set of instructions. The instructions may be either permanentlyor temporarily stored in the memory or memories of the processor. Theset of instructions may include various instructions that perform aparticular task or tasks, such as those tasks described above. Such aset of instructions for performing a particular task may becharacterized as a program, software program, software application, app,or software.

It is appreciated that in order to practice the methods of theembodiments as described above, it is not necessary that the processorsand/or the memories be physically located in the same geographicalplace. That is, each of the processors and the memories used inexemplary embodiments of the invention may be located in geographicallydistinct locations and connected so as to communicate in any suitablemanner. Additionally, it is appreciated that each of the processorand/or the memory may be composed of different physical pieces ofequipment. Accordingly, it is not necessary that the processor be onesingle piece of equipment in one location and that the memory be anothersingle piece of equipment in another location. That is, it iscontemplated that the processor may be two or more pieces of equipmentin two or more different physical locations. The two distinct pieces ofequipment may be connected in any suitable manner. Additionally, thememory may include two or more portions of memory in two or morephysical locations.

As described above, a set of instructions is used in the processing ofvarious embodiments of the invention. The servers in FIG. 1 may includesoftware or computer programs stored in the memory (e.g., non-transitorycomputer readable medium containing program code instructions executedby the processor) for executing the methods described herein. The set ofinstructions may be in the form of a program or software or app. Thesoftware may be in the form of system software or application software,for example. The software might also be in the form of a collection ofseparate programs, a program module within a larger program, or aportion of a program module, for example. The software used might alsoinclude modular programming in the form of object oriented programming.The software tells the processor what to do with the data beingprocessed.

Further, it is appreciated that the instructions or set of instructionsused in the implementation and operation of the invention may be in asuitable form such that the processor may read the instructions. Forexample, the instructions that form a program may be in the form of asuitable programming language, which is converted to machine language orobject code to allow the processor or processors to read theinstructions. That is, written lines of programming code or source code,in a particular programming language, are converted to machine languageusing a compiler, assembler or interpreter. The machine language isbinary coded machine instructions that are specific to a particular typeof processor, i.e., to a particular type of computer, for example. Anysuitable programming language may be used in accordance with the variousembodiments of the invention. For example, the programming language usedmay include assembly language, Ada, APL, Basic, C, C++, COBOL, dBase,Forth, Fortran, Java, Modula-2, Pascal, Prolog, REXX, Visual Basic,and/or JavaScript. Further, it is not necessary that a single type ofinstructions or single programming language be utilized in conjunctionwith the operation of the system and method of the invention. Rather,any number of different programming languages may be utilized as isnecessary or desirable.

Also, the instructions and/or data used in the practice of variousembodiments of the invention may utilize any compression or encryptiontechnique or algorithm, as may be desired. An encryption module might beused to encrypt data. Further, files or other data may be decryptedusing a suitable decryption module, for example.

In the system and method of exemplary embodiments of the invention, avariety of “user interfaces” may be utilized to allow a user tointerface with the mobile devices or other personal computing device. Asused herein, a user interface may include any hardware, software, orcombination of hardware and software used by the processor that allows auser to interact with the processor of the communication device. A userinterface may be in the form of a dialogue screen provided by an app,for example. A user interface may also include any of touch screen,keyboard, voice reader, voice recognizer, dialogue screen, menu box,list, checkbox, toggle switch, a pushbutton, a virtual environment(e.g., Virtual Machine (VM)/cloud), or any other device that allows auser to receive information regarding the operation of the processor asit processes a set of instructions and/or provide the processor withinformation. Accordingly, the user interface may be any system thatprovides communication between a user and a processor. The informationprovided by the user to the processor through the user interface may bein the form of a command, a selection of data, or some other input, forexample.

The software, hardware and services described herein may be providedutilizing one or more cloud service models, such asSoftware-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), andInfrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and/or using one or more deploymentmodels such as public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and/orcommunity cloud models.

Although, the examples above have been described primarily as using asoftware application (“app”) downloaded onto the customer's mobiledevice, other embodiments of the invention can be implemented usingsimilar technologies, such as transmission of data that is displayedusing an existing web browser on the customer's mobile device.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been describedherein in the context of a particular implementation in a particularenvironment for a particular purpose, those skilled in the art willrecognize that its usefulness is not limited thereto and that theembodiments of the present invention can be beneficially implemented inother related environments for similar purposes.

What is claimed is:
 1. An assessment system that assesses regulations,the assessment system comprising: a server interface configured toreceive inputs from a user interface; a data store that storesquestions, answers and an order associated with the questions andanswers; and an assessment engine comprising a computer processor,coupled to the server interface and the data store, programmed to:receive a regulation along with a request to initiate an assessment forthe regulation; dividing the received regulation into a series of rules;converting the rules into a decision tree with a series of questions;determine a first question among the series of questions based on therequest to initiate the assessment; present the first question to auser; receive data responsive to the first question; inject the receiveddata and a path definition corresponding to a path leg of the decisiontree, based in part on the received data, into a path logic of thedecision tree, wherein the path definition is retrieved from aconfiguration file of the decision tree; determine, based on the pathlogic, if the assessment is concluded; upon determining that theassessment is not concluded: store, in the data store, one or moreinterim results; apply one or more tests to the interim results;determine a second question based on the path logic and the results ofthe one or more tests on the interim results; present the secondquestion to the user; receive data responsive to the second question;and update the path logic based on the data responsive to the secondquestion; dynamically generate an audit trail of each question, responsedata, as well as feedback related to the path logic created by theresponse data, wherein the audit trail includes each of an itemidentifier (ID), assessment ID, an item sequence, a question asked, anda response to the question asked.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theregulation is a banking regulation for credit risk.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the assessment engine is programmed to execute anintermediate test and store corresponding results in the data store. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein the assessment engine is programmed toidentify trend analysis.
 5. A method that assesses regulations, themethod comprising the steps of: receiving, via an assessment engine, aregulation along with a request to initiate an assessment for theregulation; dividing, via the assessment engine, the received regulationinto a series of rules; converting, via the assessment engine, the rulesinto a decision tree with a series of questions; determining, via theassessment engine, a first question among the series of questions basedon the request to initiate the assessment; presenting, via a userinterface, the first question to a user; receiving, via the userinterface, data responsive to the first question; injecting, via theassessment engine, the received data and a path definition correspondingto a path leg of the decision tree, based in part on the received data,into a path logic of the decision tree, wherein the path definition isretrieved from a configuration file of the decision tree; determining,based on the path logic, if the assessment is concluded; upondetermining that the assessment is not concluded: storing, in a datastore, one or more interim results; applying, via the assessment engine,one or more tests to the interim results; determining, via theassessment engine, a second question based on the path logic and theresults of the one or more tests on the interim results; presenting, viathe user interface, the second question to the user; receiving, via theuser interface, data responsive to the second question; and updating,via the assessment engine, the path logic based on the data responsiveto the second question; dynamically generating an audit trail of eachquestion, response data, as well as feedback related to the path logiccreated by the response data, wherein the audit trail includes each ofan item identifier (ID), assessment ID, an item sequence, a questionasked, and a response to the question asked.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein the regulation is a banking regulation for credit risk.
 7. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the assessment engine is programmed toexecute an intermediate test and store corresponding results in the datastore.
 8. The method of claim 5, wherein the assessment engine isprogrammed to identify trend analysis.
 9. A non-transient computerreadable medium containing program instructions for causing a computerto perform a method that assesses regulations, the method comprising thesteps of: receiving, via an assessment engine, a regulation along with arequest to initiate an assessment for the regulation; dividing, via theassessment engine, the received regulation into a series of rules;converting, via the assessment engine, the rules into a decision treewith a series of questions; determining, via the assessment engine, afirst question based on the request to initiate the assessment;presenting, via a user interface, the first question to a user;receiving, via the user interface, data responsive to the firstquestion; injecting, via the assessment engine, the received data and apath definition corresponding to a path leg of the decision tree, basedin part on the received data, into a path logic of the decision tree,wherein the path definition is retrieved from a configuration file ofthe decision tree; determining, based on the path logic, if theassessment is concluded; upon determining that the assessment is notconcluded: storing, in a data store, one or more interim results;applying, via the assessment engine, one or more tests to the interimresults; determining, via the assessment engine, a second question basedon the path logic and the results of the one or more tests on theinterim results; presenting, via the user interface, the second questionto the user; receiving, via the user interface, data responsive to thesecond question; and updating, via the assessment engine, the path logicbased on the data responsive to the second question; dynamicallygenerating an audit trail of each question, response data, as well asfeedback related to the path logic created by the response data, whereinthe audit trail includes each of an item identifier (ID), assessment ID,an item sequence, a question asked, and a response to the questionasked.
 10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein theregulation is a banking regulation for credit risk.
 11. The computerreadable medium of claim 9, wherein the assessment engine is programmedto execute an intermediate test and store corresponding results in thedata store.
 12. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein theassessment engine is programmed to identify trend analysis.